Air-conditioner

ABSTRACT

This invention provides an improved air-conditioner. Basically, the air-conditioner comprises casing means mountable within an opening into a room, air-conditioning means contained within the casing, and blower means contained within the casing for drawing air from the room into the casing and proximate to the airconditioning means for conditioning thereby and then discharging the conditioned air to the room. However, in particular accordance with the present invention, the blower means that is contained within the air-conditioner has an impeller rotatably journalled between two spaced apart blower housing walls and is provided with scroll means that can perform a dual function of bridging the two housing walls and also providing a plurality of air discharge ports from the blower housing.

[451 Aug. 1,1972

United States Patent McCarty AIR-CONDITIONER William J. McCarty,Louisville, Ky.

General Electric Company Feb. 25, 1971 [72] Inventor:

[73] Assignee:

[22] Filed:

[57] ABSTRACT This invention provides an improved air-conditioner.

[21] Appl. No.: 118,670

Basically, the air-conditioner comprises casing means mountable withinan opening into a room, air-conditioning means contained within thecasing, and blower means contained within the casing for drawing airfrom the room into the casing and proximate to the air-conditioningmeans for conditioning thereby and then discharging the conditioned airto the room.

However, in particular accordance with the present invention, the blowermeans that is contained within the air-conditioner has an impellerrotatably journalled between two spaced apart blower housing walls andis provided with scroll means that can perform a dual [56] ReferencesCited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,188,464 1/1940Moorman.....................4l5/206 function of bridging the two housingwalls and also 2780929 2/1957 62/262 providing a plurality of airdischarge ports from the blower housing.

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figures 207,9903/1960 Austria......................4l5/219B PATENTEDMIU m2 SHEET 1 OF 2INVENTOR If. MCCARTY :E' ,TJZ'

ATTORNEY WlLLlA 1 AIR-CONDITIONER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION casingmeans mountable within an opening into a.

room, air-conditioning means contained within the casing, and blowermeans contained within the casing for drawing air from the room into thecasing and proximate to the air-conditioning means for conditioningthereby and discharging the conditioned air to the room. U.S. Pat. No.2,942,439 describes a typical prior-art form of such conventional units,wherein the blower housing has only a single air discharge port.

Frequently, the room that is to have its air conditioned by such anair-conditioner unit is a sleeping room and, hence, it is desirable thatthe noise generated by the unit be minimized.

ln accordance with a particular aspect of the present invention, it hasbeen found that by providing the housing of the blower means that ismountedwithin the casing of a self-contained room air-conditioner unitof the aforedescribed type with plural air discharge ports instead ofthe conventional single air discharge port, one can either reduce thenoise level generated by the airconditioner unit without concurrentreduction in the flow rate of air-conditioned thereby or, alternatively,maintain the previous noise level generated by the prior-art typestructure while increasing the flow rate of air that can be conditionedby the improved units airconditioning means.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,146 describes a vehicle air-circulating systememploying a blower housing having plural air discharge ports. However,its blower is not incorporated in a self-contained air-conditioner unitand the patentee is silent regarding noise reduction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Basically, the improved air-conditioner of thepresent invention comprises casing means mountable within an openinginto a room, air-conditioning means contained within the casing, andblower means contained within the casing for drawing air from the roominto the casing and proximate to the air-conditioning means forconditioning thereby and then discharging the conditioned air to theroom. In particular accordance with the present invention, the blowermeans that is contained within the air-conditioner casing has animpeller rotatably journalled between the two spaced apart blowerhousing walls with at least one of the two housing walls having an airinlet opening and is provided with scroll means which can perform a dualfunction of bridging the two housing walls and also providing aplurality of air discharge ports from the housing. Preferably, thescroll means also provide baffie means for separating air streamsdischarged from the plural ports and the ports are arranged tangentiallyto the impeller and are spaced apart from one another by an acute angle.

The improved arrangement of the present invention is particularlyadvantageous over the aforedescribed prior-art units in that it permitseither reduction of the noise level generated by an air-conditioner unitwithout concurrent reduction in the flow of air conditioned thereby, oralternatively, maintenance of the previous noise level generated by theprior-art type structure while increasing the volume of air that can beconditioned by the improved units air-conditioning means.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is illustratedin the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a somewhat schematic, partly-broken, fragmentary room-sideperspective view of a presently preferred form of an improvedair-conditioner that is provided in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a partly-broken, partly-sectioned, enlarged fragmentary topplan view of the air-conditioner of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2;and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EIVIBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings,and particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, there is illustrated a presentlypreferred embodiment of an improved self-contained air-conditioning unitor room-air conditioner 10 that is provided in accordance with thepresent invention. The air-conditioner 10 comprises a generally hollowbox-like casing 11 that can be easily mounted within an opening 12 intoa room, such as can be provided by a hole in the building wall, awindow, or the like, in such a manner that a front or interior portionof the casing 11 faces interiorly of the room, and a rear or exteriorportion of the casing 11 is exposed to air outside the building.

The casing 11 has spaced apart top and bottom walls, a pair of spacedapart side walls, a rear end wall (not shown), and an open front endthat is provided with a foraminous cover or grille 13, which can beremoved therefrom to permit access to the casing interior. Removablycontained within the casing 11 is a generally horizontal tray or pan1.4. This pan 14 has a barrier or partition 15 mounted generallyvertically thereon that can extend across the interior of the casing 11and divide the casing interior into a front or roomair chamber 16 and arear or outside-air chamber 17.

As best shown in FIG. 2, air-conditioningmeans, including a room-airheat exchanger 18, are mounted on the pan 14 within the room-air chamber16, while an outside-air heat exchanger 19 and a fluid compressor 20 aremounted on the pan 14 within the outside-air chamber 17. The two heatexchangers 18 and 19 and the compressor 20 are fluid-connected in aseries flow relationship by means of suitable conduits (not shown indetail) in a well-known manner to form a conventionalcompressor-condenser-evaporator refrigerating system, wherein one of theheat exchangers 18 or 19 functions to absorb heat and the other heatexchanger functions to dissipate heat. Usually, the room-air heatexchanger 18 functions as an evaporator or heat-absorbing element, tocool and dehumidify room air that is circulated through it forconditioning by it. In such an arrangement, the outside-air heatexchanger 19 serves as the condenser or heatdissipating element of thesystem. However, it is not uncommon to include provisions for reversingthe functions of the heat exchangers 18 and 19 whereby the room-air heatexchanger 18 can be caused to condition the room air by adding heat toit.

Supported on the barrier is a fan 21 for circulating outdoor air throughthe casing outside-air chamber 17 and past the outside-air heatexchanger 19. This fan 21 includes a rotary electric motor 22 of awell-known type that has its housing 23 suitably secured to the rear orexterior side of the barrier 15. As best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, themotor 22 has a first output shaft 24 which extends toward theoutside-air heat exchanger 19 and is connected to the fan 21, and anoppositely extending second output shaft 25 that is rotatably journalledin a sealed bearing 26 that is mounted in the barrier 15. This secondoutput shaft 25 is connected to an impeller 27 for blower means 28 thatare mounted within the room-air chamber 16 between the barrier 15 andthe room-air heat exchanger 18 for drawing air from the room into theroom-air chamber 16 and through or past the room-air heat exchanger 18for conditioning thereby and then discharging the thus conditioned airto the room.

The blower means impeller or fan 27 is contained within a housing 29that includes a pair of generally vertically arranged housing walls, oneof which is formed by a portion of the barrier 15 and the other of which30 is located between the barrier 15 and the room-air heat exchanger 18and is provided with agenerally circular air inlet opening 31. Therotational axis of the impeller 27 (the central axis of the motor outputshaft 25) is preferably aligned with the center of the blower air inletopening 31 and arranged generally perpendicular to the two housing walls15 and 30. The

blower housing 29 further includes scroll means 32 which will behereinafter described in detail, that can perform a dual function ofbridging the two blower housing walls 15 and 30 and also providing aplurality of air discharge ports (two air discharge ports 33 and 34 asbest shown in FIGS. 1 and 4) from the blower housing 29.

outlet portions 42 and 43 that are arranged tangentially -to the centerof the air inlet opening 31, with each havingits outer peripheryincluding a tangential section 42a, 43a and a linear section 42b and43b. The scroll means 32 of the present invention include a first scrollmember 32A and a second scroll member 32B. The first scroll member 32Ais considerably larger than the second 323 and bridges all of thearcuate outer periphery of the forward housing wall to the portion ofthe barrier 15 forming the blower housing rear wall, along with thetangential section 42a of the outlet portion 42, while the second orsmaller scroll member 32B bridges only the tangential section 43a of theother outlet portion 43 to the barrier 15. With this arrangement, thespace between the two blower housing side walls 15 and 30 is leftuncovered by the scroll means 32 adjacent the linear sections 42b and43b of the two outletportions 42 and 43 of the forward housing wall 30to thereby respectively provide the dual air discharge ports 33 and 34from the blower housing 29.

The motor 22. is electrically-connected such that, upon energization, itwill cause the impeller 27 to rotate in a direction (clockwise asillustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4) such that the room air will be drawninwardly thereby into the blower housing 29 through the inlet opening 31generally parallel to the rotational axis 25 of the impeller 27 and willbe discharged generally tangentially to the impeller rotational axis 25,through the dual discharge ports 33 and 34.

Preferably, one of the dual discharge ports 33 is vertically arrangedadjacent one of the room-air chamber side walls 35, while the other port34 is angularly spaced apart from it by a bridging portion of the scrollmember 328 covering an acute angle of less than 90,

- such that both of the ports 33 and 34 can discharge air The room-airchamber 16 is further defined by a pair of walls 35 and 36 which extendgenerally upward'from the pan l4 and forward from the opposite ends ofthe barrier 15 to form the room-air chamber side walls and by anotherwall 37 which extends over the upper edges of the barrier 15 and thewalls 35 and 36 to form the room-air chamber top wall. The part of theroom-air chamber 16 that is located toward the room side of theroom-side or forward blower housing wall 30 is divided into an upperfront or air-discharge portion 38 and a lower front or air-intakeportion 39 by a divider plate 40 that extends generally horizontallybetween the chamber side walls 35 and 36, with the room-air heatexchanger 18 being located in one part of the lower front portion 39 andcontrol means 41 being located in another part thereof.

As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4, the blower housing forward wall 30has its outer periphery made generally concentric with, but, of course,larger than the outer circumference of the impeller 27 and generallyarcuate except for two angularly spaced apart into the upper orair-discharge portion 38 of the roomair chamber 16, and a portion 32B ofthe. smaller secondscroll member 32B is bent upwardly and engagedwiththe room-air chamber top wall 37 to provide baflle means to split theroom-air chamber upper or air-discharge portion 38 into two parts andthereby separate the two air streams that are respectively dischargedfrom the two ports 33 and 34. Another baffle member 44 is also providedwhich extends laterally between one of the terminal ends of the largerfirst scroll member 32A, the other side wall 36 of the room air chamber16, the barrier 15 and the divider plate 40 to fluid-separate thedischarge port 34 from the roomair chamber lower or air-intake portion39.

With the aforedescribed embodiment of the improved air conditioner 10 ofthe present invention, room air circulation will be as shown in FIG. 1upon energization of the motor 22 to cause rotation of the blowerimpeller 27 in the direction of arrow 45. Air will be drawn from theroom into the air-conditioner lower or air-intake portion 39 in a streamindicated by a single arrow 46, passing through the air-conditioningmeans 18 and into the blower housing 29 generally parallel to therotational axis 25 of the impeller 27 via the air inlet opening 31.Then, this air, which has been conditioned by its passage through theair-conditioning means 18, will now be discharged from the blowerhousing 29 generally tangentially to the impeller rotational axis 25 intwo separate air streams indicated by arrows 47 and 48 via the twodischarge ports 33 and 34,

respectively. One of these two conditioned-air streams 47 will exitvertically from one of the two blower discharge ports 33 and willimpinge upon the top wall 37 and upper portion of one side wall 35 ofthe roomair chamber 16, the upper portion of the barrier 15 locatedtoward one side of the baffle portion 323 of the smaller scroll member328 and the exterior of the smaller scroll member 323 and will beforwardly deflected thereby and discharged back into the room throughthat part of the room-air chamber upper or airdischarge portion 38 thatis located on one side of the baffle portion 32B and the part of thegrille 13 which covers it.

On the other hand, the other of these two conditioned-air stream 48 willexit from the other blower discharge port 34 which is horizontallyoriented and will impinge on the room-air chamber other side wall 36 andtop wall 37, the upper portion of the barrier 15 located toward theother side of the scroll meansbafile portion 328 and on the bafflemember 44 and will be deflected forwardly thereby to be discharged backinto the room through the other part of the room-air chamber upper orair-discharge portion 38 which is located on the opposite side of thescroll means baffle portion 328 and the part of the grille 13 coveringit.

By employing the aforedescribed dual discharge blower embodiment of theimproved air-conditioner of the present invention, in substitution forthe previously-noted conventional single discharge blower units having amotor of comparable rating to the motor 26 which is employed in theimproved unit 10, it has been found that one may either reduce the noiselevel generated by the air-conditioner unit without concurrent reductionin flow of the air conditioned thereby or, alternatively, maintain theprevious noise level generated by the prior-art type structure whileincreasing the volume of air that can be conditioned by the improvedunit. By way of illustration, there now sets forth two typical examples,with Example I being illustrative of reduction of noise level withoutconcurrent reduction in conditioned-air flow, and Example 11 beingillustrative of an alternative case wherein noise level is maintainedsubstantially constant while the volume of air that can be conditionedis increased. These two examples follow:

EXAMPLE I Esmm g V L 29YL Single Dis- Dual Di scharge Air charge AirConditioner Conditioner Blower Motor Rated Horsepower 1/5 HP 1/5 HP AirFlow Through Room- Air Heat Exchanger (Cubic Feet/Minute) 460 464 NoiseLevel (Phons) 74 71 EXAMPLE II Conventional Improved Single Dis- DualDischar e Air char e Air Con itioners Con itioner Blower Motor RatedHorsepower M; HP HP Air Flow Through Room-Air Heat Exchan er (Cubic Feetinute) 341 409 Noise Level (Phons) 71 71 It should be apparent to thoseskilled in the art that while there has been described what, at thepresent, is considered to be the preferred embodiment of this inventionin accordance with the patent statutes, changes may be made in thedisclosed apparatus without actually departing from the true spirit andscope of this invention. It is, therefore, intended that the appendedclaims shall cover such modifications and applications that may notdepart from the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:

1. An air conditioner comprising:

a casing having top, bottom and side walls and a generally open frontwall provided with a grille;

a horizontal partition dividing the front portion of said easing into alower air-intake portion and an upper air-discharge portion whichextends substantially the width of said casing between said casing sidewalls;

air-conditioning means contained within said casing;

blower means contained within said casing below and rearwardly from saidpartition and adjacent one side wall of said casing for drawing air fromsaid room past said air-conditioning means for conditioning thereby andthen discharging the conditioned air through said air-discharge portionto said room;

said blower housing including scroll means having a first verticallyoriented air discharge port adjacent one side wall of said casing andcommunicating with one end portion of said air discharge portionrearwardly of said partition and a second horizontally oriented airdischarge port communicating with the other end portion of said airdischarge port above said partition; and

baffle means on said scroll and engaging said top wall for separatingthe air streams discharged from said discharge ports.

1. An air conditioner comprising: a casing having top, bottom and sidewalls and a generally open front wall provided with a grille; ahorizontal partition dividing the front portion of said casing into alower air-intake portion and an upper air-discharge portion whichextends substantially the width of said casing between said casing sidewalls; air-conditioning means contained within said casing; blower meanscontained within said casing below and rearwardly from said partitionand adjacent one side wall of said casing for drawing air from said roompast said air-conditioning means for conditioning thereby and thendischarging the conditioned air through said air-discharge portion tosaid room; said blower housing including scroll means having a firstvertically oriented air discharge port adjacent one side wall of saidcasing and communicating with one end portion of said air dischargeportion rearwardly of said partition and a second horizontally orientedair discharge port communicating with the other end portion of said airdischarge port above said partition; and baffle means on said scroll andengaging said top wall for separating the air streams discharged fromsaid discharge ports.